Andrei Illarionov

Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity

Andrei Illarionov is currently a senior fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. From 2000 to December 2005 he was the chief economic adviser of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Illarionov also served as the president's personal representative in the G-8.

In December 2005, Illarionov offered his resignation in protest against changes in government policy, saying that Russia was no longer politically free, but run by state corporations acting in their own interests.

From 1993 to 1994 Illarionov served as chief economic adviser to the prime minister of the Russian Federation, Viktor Chernomyrdin. He resigned in February 1994 to protest changes in the government's economic policy. In July 1994 Illarionov founded the Institute of Economic Analysis and became its director.

Illarionov has coauthored several economic programs for Russian governments and has written three books and more than 300 articles on Russian economic and social policies. He is a critic of the global-warming theory and of the Kyoto Protocol, stating in a 2004 interview that no link has been established between carbon dioxide emmissions and climate change.